Posted at: 27 January

54421291103 - Founding Engineer

Company

CompanyActivate Talent

Activate Talent is a global B2B staffing and recruitment agency specializing in rapid hiring solutions for diverse industries, including SaaS and e-commerce, with a focus on connecting businesses with top-tier talent.

Remote Hiring Policy:

Activate Talent supports fully remote work and hires globally, welcoming candidates from various regions without specific geographic restrictions.

Job Type

Full-time

Allowed Applicant Locations

Worldwide

Apply Here

Job Description

About the Role

We are looking for a Founding Engineer to help design and build a modern, scalable web platform from the ground up. This is a hands-on, high-impact role where you will work across the full product lifecycle — from architecture and development to deployment and ongoing optimization.

You’ll collaborate closely with product, design, and leadership while helping shape engineering standards, system architecture, and long-term technical direction. This role is ideal for an engineer who thrives in fast-moving environments, enjoys end-to-end ownership, and values strong engineering fundamentals.

What You’ll Work With

Current Stack

  • Backend: Node.js (NestJS / Express), Postgres
  • Frontend: React, TypeScript
  • Infrastructure: AWS (EC2/ECS/Lambda, RDS, S3, CloudFront, IAM)

Key Responsibilities

Backend Engineering

  • Design, build, and maintain scalable RESTful APIs using NestJS or Express
  • Contribute to future tech stack decisions and overall engineering direction
  • Architect efficient Postgres schemas, write optimized queries, and manage migrations
  • Implement authentication & authorization systems (JWT, sessions, OAuth)
  • Build integrations with third-party APIs and external services
  • Develop integrations with AWS-hosted services and internal tooling
  • Write automated tests across service, integration, and API layers
  • Implement logging, monitoring, and metrics for production reliability
  • Apply best practices in security, performance, and secrets management

Frontend Engineering

  • Build responsive, high-performance UIs using React and TypeScript
  • Work with design systems or component libraries to deliver polished interfaces
  • Integrate frontend applications with backend APIs using clean state management
  • Ensure strong UX, accessibility, and cross-browser compatibility

Collaboration & Technical Leadership

  • Partner with product managers to clarify requirements and propose scalable solutions
  • Collaborate with designers to translate wireframes into functional experiences
  • Participate in code reviews and help raise engineering standards
  • Document architectural decisions and contribute to technical roadmapping

  • 5+ years of professional software engineering experience
  • Strong proficiency in Node.js (NestJS/Express), Python, or Go
  • Deep experience with Postgres (schema design, migrations, performance optimization)
  • Hands-on experience with AWS infrastructure (EC2/ECS/Lambda, RDS, S3, CloudFront, IAM)
  • Proven experience building scalable APIs and distributed systems
  • Strong understanding of relational database design
  • Familiarity with CI/CD pipelines (GitHub Actions, CircleCI, or similar)
  • Strong debugging skills and a methodical, systems-thinking approach
  • Excellent communication skills with the ability to explain technical decisions clearly

Nice to Have

  • Experience with GraphQL or tRPC
  • Infrastructure-as-code tools (Terraform, CDK, Serverless Framework)
  • Caching layers such as Redis or edge caching with CloudFront
  • Monitoring and observability tools (Datadog, CloudWatch, Sentry)
  • Experience with multi-tenant architectures or high-traffic SaaS platforms
  • Performance optimization across both frontend and backend
  • Background in data-heavy or analytics-driven systems

Apply Here